1 Thessalonians 5:27,28 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

I charge you Greek, ορκιζω υμας, I adjure you, that is, I lay you under the obligation of an oath; that this epistle The first he wrote; be read to all the holy brethren Namely, of your church. The reader must observe, that in judicial oaths, the custom among the Jews was not for the person who came under the obligation of an oath to pronounce the words of swearing with his own mouth, but an oath was exacted from him by the magistrate or superior, and so he became bound to answer upon oath, by hearing the voice of swearing or adjuration rather, as the LXX. render it. Here, therefore, a solemn act of divine worship is paid to Christ, taking an oath in the name of God being a branch of his worship. This epistle was doubtless sent to the presidents and pastors of the Thessalonian church, and the command, that the epistle should be read, was delivered to them. “The same course, we may suppose, the apostle followed with respect to all his other inspired epistles. They were sent by him to the elders of the churches, for whose use they were principally designed, with a direction that they should be read publicly by some of their number to the brethren in their assemblies for worship; and that not once or twice, but frequently, that all might have the benefit of the instructions contained in them. If this method had not been followed, such as were unlearned would have derived no advantage from the apostolical writings; and to make these writings of use to the rest, they must have been circulated among them in private, which would have exposed the autographs (or the original copies) to the danger of being corrupted or lost.” But what Paul commands under a strong adjuration, Rome forbids under pain of excommunication, prohibiting the reading of the Scriptures to the common people in their religious assemblies, or enjoining them to be read, if at all, in an unknown tongue; a sufficient proof this, that whatever that church may be besides, it is not apostolical. It is justly observed by Dr. Paley, that “the existence of this clause is an evidence of the authenticity of this epistle: because to produce a letter purporting to have been publicly read in the church at Thessalonica, when no such letter had been read or heard of in that church, would be to produce an imposture destructive of itself. Either the epistle was publicly read in the church at Thessalonica during St. Paul's lifetime, or it was not. If it was, no publication could be more authentic, no species of notoriety more unquestionable, no method of preserving the integrity of the copy more secure: if it was not, the clause would remain a standing condemnation of the forgery, and, one would suppose, an invincible impediment to its success.”